House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst struck a different tone than the Democratic governor in describing the task force’s report, a day after it voted to advance nine recommendation that avoided many of the thorny issues surrounding oil and gas drilling.

“This may be a matter of cognitive dissonance. I think he may be a little more pleased than I am with the results of the task force,” the Boulder Democrat told The Denver Post in an interview. “I am a little disappointed that we didn’t get further along on the real crux of the issue which is local control — the ability for local residents and property owners and communities to have more of a say on oil and gas development that is very close to them.”

Hickenlooper touted the group’s work in a statement Tuesday, saying the recommendations were “significant in both breadth and the level of consensus they achieved.”

The task force made a recommendation to better involve local governments in the permitting process but the industry led an effort to reject measures to allow localities to put in place rules that go beyond state regulations.

“We may just have to go to an initiative on this — I’m not averse to do that,” she said. “I don’t think that’s the best solution to any problem to go to an initiative because there are all kinds of unintended consequences. But I think we will all be looking at that.

“We’ve really put a lot of effort and a lot of time into trying to resolve this from a legislative perspective,” she continued. “That’s why sometimes initiatives are important.”

Later, in a prepared statement from her office, Hullinghorst backpedaled to say she thinks the “ballot initiative conversation is premature and not an avenue I am interested in pursuing.”

Three Senate Republican lawmakers declined to comment about the task force report, with some saying they hadn’t reviewed the recommendations yet.

Asked on the floor about the report, Senate President Bill Cadman wouldn’t comment. But his office later issued a prepared statement in which Cadman called the recommendations “reasonable and thoughtful on initial review.”

“Increased operational transparency and better cooperation between energy producers and local communities are sensible goals that we can work together to achieve,” he said.

The Colorado Springs lawmaker also took at shot at critics of the industry. “It’s becoming obvious that nothing short of an economically devastating statewide fracking ban will satisfy some groups,” he said in the statement, “but reasonable people from all sides of the issue should find something to like in these recommendations.”

Other critics of the process were quick to point out the task force’s shortcomings. Sen. Matt Jones said the task force action did nothing to diminish the tensions surrounding the issue.

“The standard was strong community protection and on that ground, they got about an F-plus,” said Sen. Matt Jones, D-Louisville. “They are calling it a B, but it’s not. And the issue is not going to go away.”

“I think it’s a good chance people are going to go to the ballot,” he continued. “I think you’re going to see more bills in here and more battles over the issue in legislation. And it’s too bad because industrial activity dropping into people’s backyards is not good.”

Jones said he is considering legislation that goes beyond what the panel recommended to grant local governments control about the location of drilling operations in their community

“I think the oil and gas industry locking down is no surprise at all,” he said. “And the two-thirds vote made it very difficult to do anything meaningful as far as safeguards for people near oil and gas.”

On the issue of local government’s friction with oil and gas companies, Republican Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg of Sterling said the task force recommendations speak for themselves.

“If the task force did not find a need to something forward to help that relationship, then so be it,” he said. “That’s what the task force was tasked to do.”

Even though the task force report failed to win wide support, Floyd Ciruli, a Denver-based political analyst, said the process may help the governor and his supporters in the business community push back against more aggressive efforts.

“He had no success in finding a compromise that keeps everyone happy, but on the other hand I think they may have done themselves some good in going through this exercise,” he said.

Ciruli called a compromise recommendation that gives local governments control “a conundrum that is almost impossible to solve.”

Further, he said it’s not clear an initiative process to make major changes to how oil and gas is regulated would get the required signatures or win approval, especially in this climate of low oil and gas prices and industry cutbacks.

The governor’s task force also provides political cover for opponents, Ciruli argued. “If it’s inevitable that there’s going to be a ballot initiative the governor and his supporters … really want is to be in a position to argue we made a good and full effort at this,” he said.

Speaker Lee may be playing with a deflated political football. If the price of oil doesn’t rise soon, this will become a non-issue, and she’ll be looking for other ways to raise revenue for the state to replace the millions the oil industry was bringing in.

coloradocowboy

Oh p l e a s e ! We will not lose one penny. If you take your head out of ground you see oil prices have risen 20% in two weeks and will continue to rise.
Fracking needs to be regulated at the local level. There will be something on the 2016 ballot for sure now that the task force failed to do it’s job(thanks to the oil lobbyist)

Ctaj

Oh, please, yourself. The price of oil has been trading between $45 and $55 all month, and frackers are losing money at that price. A whole lot of drilled wells aren’t being completed with fracking, and a whole lot more planned drillings are being postponed. Most of the jobs in the industry are the servicers, and the work is drying up for them. To get work, they have to lower their fees dramatically.

And there’s enough production still going on around the world to keep the supply ahead of the demand, so there’s no reason for the price to rise.

If you want to stop fracking at the local level, get your wallet out. They have a legal right to those mineral rights, and if you take away that value, you have to pay them for it. That’s the law. And minerals right, under the law, supercede surface rights. Look it up.

Old Goat

My concern is that the decisions will be made by people with little to know understanding of the process and less desire to learn. Thus continuing the perpetuation of half truths and deception.

Old Goat

And where will the drill fees, sales taxes and additional income for the state come from if oil production continues to stagnate. The rigs will roll back to ohio, and West Virginia and the support crews with them.

jerrico jones

Ms Willinghorse’s position is easy to understand. There isn’t one single part of the liberal agenda that wouldn’t be helped by a statewide fracking ban,

Old Goat

The humorous part of the argument is that there is not one producer of substance even remotely interested in drilling in boulder county. This is not where the oil is, so let the cities decide. The ranch owners on the prairie will vote to continue drilling.

Common Scents

Gov. Hick has proven he can win statewide. The Speaker won’t even attempt a try at it. Probably has something to do with one having a broader position than the other on issues of statewide importance.

Ann Chovie

Gov. Hick is a New England Progressive Communist Bloomberg shill.

He only won because the Colorado GOP nominated a loser to run for gov. who wouldn’t attack Hicks ties to Bloomberg. And he did not win statewide, he won by 2.9% by carrying metro Denver/Boulder/Pueblo. Rural Colorado voted for the GOP.

Ann Chovie

So called Progressives, i.e. Communists, don’t want locals to control their own destiny. Their Utopian dreams have no place for what the people want.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.